Growing A Cottage Garden Part 7

When last I left you, I was figuring out how to make an armature out of metal wire for the Camellia tree. The wire, purchased on Amazon, came in a set of varying gauges. This was because I really wasn't sure until I actually played with it how big a diameter I should use and how long I should make it. I settled on a mixture of three strands each of the 1 mm, 1.5 mm and 2 mm wire. I made each length 36", essentially doubling the length of the 18" area I needed the tree to cover. Then, following Luke Towan's instruction video, I folded the length in half leaving a twist at the middle for roots. I had to size my measurements up from Luke's, naturally, because I am not working in HO train scale. To keep the roots in the pot, I positioned them in the pot and then added layer after layer of hot glue until it was completely affixed and stable. It really made a nice work stand!

I decided to try using Woodland Scenics Latex Rubber to coat the wire tree armature, because Luke's video said it remained flexible once dry and painted. I had a lot of areas to conform the tree to, so having some flexibility was crucial. The link I provided is the eBay seller where I purchased the product, though it is widely available and probably much cheaper if you're willing to brave traffic or wait a while for shipping. I had mine in two business days. I found the latex rubber as easy as thick paint to apply and the odor not too bad. I applied three good coats and let them dry thoroughly in between. It dries semi-opaque and semi-clear with just a slight yellow tone.

Applying paint to the dried latex rubber was much easier than I expected and it adhered well. I used everyday acrylic craft paint to give an undertone in a color called Honeycomb. Then, I applied a few washes of Raw Sienna so that it settled into the cracks and gave nice definition. I added a couple coats of the Raw Sienna floated in satin glazing medium for a little depth, then sealed the entire tree in Ultra Matte Mod Podge. I wanted the sealer to remain flexible, as well.

I put the tree back in place and bent it to shape again before beginning to apply the Camellia flowers. To apply them to the tree, I wrapped the wire ends around the tree so that I could later adjust them if and as needed.

Out of the one-hundred-forty-four stems, I reserved nine to make up a vase for inside. I also saved five to place into a picking basket. After I felt the tree was sufficiently covered, I still had fourteen left. So how many Camellias does it take to cover a tree? Exactly one-hundred-sixteen! :O)
And how many leaves did it take? Let's just say that I have four of the eleven sheets left!
And once the leaves and blooms were on, I filled the pot with some white glue and "dirt", then fit the tree in place. I am not sure what season my garden is in, or what is supposed to bloom when, but in my make believe world, it makes perfect sense. And the latex rubber was definitely the way to go! My branches bent and conformed with ease and with no sign of stress.

I tried to stay productive while waiting for the mail, then later, waiting for substances to dry. I had an Ascot Water Heater kit from Phoenix Models to put together, so that's what I did while Russ was watching football. It was fiddly, and had to be put together in several stages. With drying time in between, there was lots of two part epoxy mixing required. I also had to look at a lot of online photos of real Ascot gas water heaters because I found the instructions a little sparse. Eventually, I figured it out. I made it look old using Elizabeth's excellent glass paint aging technique.

I also needed a gas meter. Clever Elizabeth made one from a dollar store lip gloss container, but as I hate to go STORE shopping, I had to look through my junk drawers. I came up with an old QuickBooks card reader. The size and shape were just right, so after pulling the green card slot part off, it was the perfect starting point.

I had some hollow plastic (Wilson) lollipop sticks which bent pretty easily after holding them over a candle flame for a few seconds. There's a bit of a learning curve in terms of how long to hold it over the flame and how much pressure to use to bend it, but I was satisfied with my results. For the regulator (the round thing), I used a spacer bead, a pot metal wheel and a corsage pin. I also used spacer beads as fittings where the pipes connect to the meter, wall and to the ground. For the spigots (emergency shut off valve?), I used more spacer beads and nails. I drilled holes into the pipes so that they would sit and seat correctly. I used the epoxy to adhere these parts. For the meter display panel and to cover over the QuickBooks embossing on the meter body, I had leftover frame matting cut from my Cricut.

After I had all of the parts glued together, I sprayed it with flat gray spray primer. It was really cold in the garage, so I just sat with the paint can between my thighs until it was nice and warm. Then I quickly sprayed and brought the paint board into the house to dry. I found a photo of an old gas meter face plate and resized it to fit my frame. I glued it to the front of the painted (and dry) meter, then filled in the "glass" with Glossy Accents. Once that was dry, I aged with washes of Burnt Sienna and Cocoa Bean.

And while waiting for all of that to set and dry, I made some birdhouses...

And finally, before I go, I want to share something with you. Often the people in our lives don't get miniatures. They don't understand how and why these tiny things become so precious and special to us. I have come to believe that you either get it and develop a passion, or you don't. And what happens to all of those precious things when we pass on? If you're lucky, you have friends in life to share the passion with and can pass them on there. But if not, your family might just see all you've carefully created and collected as a burden that they must bear when you're gone. But if you're really lucky, a family member will know just where to find the perfect person to pass on and protect that legacy. Keli was asked and graciously accepted that responsibility, and has made sure that things once treasured still are. If you haven't read or don't remember about Charlene's Legacy, you must read Keli's posts. Keli has passed many things on, and just recently, I received the honor of some of those gifts.

Delicate bird cage with tiny bird, Faberge egg with Cardinal, tiny glass slipper, lady figurine and embroidery pillow.

Gorgeous 20 piece china dinner set.

Thank you, Keli, for entrusting me with the things that once belonged to and were loved by Charlene. I will display them proudly, and treasure them until it's time for me to pass them on!

I'm so grateful that through technology, I have all of you to share the joy and passion for miniatures with! I truly treasure each of you, and am so happy you are here!

xo xo,
Jodi

Growing A Cottage Garden Part 6

I think I may have mentioned that I am going to try and make a Camellia tree for the garden. It's leaves have been used to make tea since tea making first began. It is said to help digestive disorders, and the flower varieties are vast and beautiful.

I'm using leaf and petal sheets from SDK for the flower parts. I have a lot of them - twelve sheets each of small and large petals, and eleven sheets of leaves. This means one-hundred-twenty full flower stems, twenty-four blooming buds, and one-thousand-one-hundred-twenty-two large and small leaves. As you can imagine, this will take a while, and I hope I have enough...

Wires, leaf and petal sheets, instructions and calculations.

The first step was to cut one-hundred-forty-four wire stems and dip the ends in paint. I spent every spare moment I had over the last week coloring petals with Pastel Pink ProMarker and leaves with alcohol ink. My petals turned more of a salmon pink on the majority of the petal sheets (I was sent two vastly different kinds of petal paper), but that still worked well with the color scheme of the cottage (though I would have preferred them lighter).

Round one with two petals took about four hours.

Round two with petals 3-4 took four more hours...

For the fifth and sixth petals I stopped keeping track of time.

And then there was a set of leaves to add. I'm only adding two to each stem, for now. The remaining eight-hundred-thirty-four leaves will be added last, to fill out the tree.

And speaking of tree...

Here is the beginning of the armature. Can you tell it's my first time? I have Durham's Rock Hard Water Putty on hand to give Brae's tree making method a try. I also have Woodland Scenics Latex Rubber on the way. I am going to experiment with it as well, following the instructions on Luke Towan's video. l'll report about my findings next post.

And last but not least this week, I promised Fluby a photo after I had made the Strawberry Plant kit. Birgit, please show him the photo. I hope he finds my strawberries satisfactory!

I hope to be back with Camellia Tree progress next week, though I am starting to believe that the "Growing A Cottage Garden" posts may reach 11 or 12!

Keep away from the ghouls, they're a bad lot of fools!

xo xo,
Jodi

Be Our Guest...

After our son moved out in July, we decided to give some of the upstairs rooms a little refresh. We took out the old carpeting, replaced it with laminate flooring, repainted the walls, and did some repairs. It took us a while (and is still ongoing), because Russ had been working out of town, coming home for weekends, for several months. As luck would have it, other important things (like replacing the Jeep's clutch) came up and took precedence, too. We really only had the weekends together to get things done, and a lot of the work was a two person job. Our scope of work included two bedrooms, the guest bath, the hallway and (almost finished) the landing. We are also replacing the carpeting on the stairs for wood treads and beadboard risers, though that work is still ongoing. It's been a lot of physical work, and in spite of our "Reuse, Recycle, Restore and Repurpose" commitment, the $$ have been flying out of the checking account. But like most necessary things, we are glad to have (nearly) gotten it done.

For now, we only furnished and decorated one guest room. Our usual visitors live close enough to go home after gatherings, so one room seemed appropriate. To make it a comfortable place for our guests, we bought a few things, refreshed and repaired a few things, and I made a few things. I have a lot of bold colors throughout the rest of my home, so I wanted the guest rooms to feel light and airy. I tried several samples on the walls, and because of it's warm and neutral feel, went with Behr Cream Puff. I like it, and it gives off a nice feeling in person. It also looks crisp and clean with the freshly repainted white trim.

I made the wall art piece thingy using wood, trim, knobs, ribbon and paint I already had. The frames are 12" x 12" purchased on sale from Hobby Lobby online. The price was great ($4.99 half price sale), and the frames are good quality, but boy did they take a long time to get here! 10 days! If only Hobby Lobby knew how impatient I am, and could get my stuff to me in 3 to 4 days instead, they'd get A LOT more of my money! I used the Cricut Design Space to create the lettering and mats for the frames. The letters for HOME were also purchased from Hobby Lobby.

The coat rack/hanger was under $8, having only to buy the chipboard "welcome" and two fancy metal hooks. I had the scrap wood and trim, black chalk paint and bronze guilder's paste.

The dresser has been a hand me down in our family for a number of years. My grandparents had it in their guest bedroom, then when grandpa passed, it lived at my parents house. They gave it to my son who used it until he moved out, and then it became ours. Originally, it had a very orange-ish toned stain. Not really my style, but the original hardware was unique and rustic enough to fit in with the new decor. After a coat of black spray paint and then a dusting of aged bronze, they're even better. I gave the dresser a good cleaning to remove accumulated and invisible oils and furniture polish collected on it throughout the years, then primed and spray painted it satin black to match the rest of the furniture. It works really well in the room.

 

The platform bed frame is nothing special, just a ship flat IKEA type piece. They wanted an arm AND a leg for the matching headboard, so I made my own. Having some experience making fabric covered cornices for the kitchen and family room windows, I had a little confidence that I could make the fabric covered headboard. Nothing fancy, just interesting and nice. Russ cut the 3/4" plywood for me, then I stapled on a 1" foam slab. I wrapped batting over that, and then the fabric. I got the upholstery fabric and the foam slab from Joanne's online when they went on sale for 50% off. I paid $5.99/yd. for the fabric (bought 4 yards so I'd have extra) and $16 for the 24" x 90" roll of 1" thick foam. I had leftover batting stored from the cornices, and finally put it to good use! The fabric is pretty and pulls in the yellow, black and creams from the rest of the decor. I also made runners for the dresser and the nightstand with the fabric.

I bought the chair, mattress, bedding with window covering set, candles, rug and clock at various online retailers after much price comparing and review reading. Did I mention how much I avoid shopping in stores? Fierce traffic to get anywhere, long lines, out of stocks, can't find what you need, having to drive all over to several stores just to strike out. Nope. Not doing it. I'm an online shopper, and even get my groceries delivered!

The lamp is an extra from the set I have in the family room. It just needed a simple rewiring. The nightstand is an extra piece I've used in various rooms over the years.

The bathroom didn't get a lot of attention. I found just scrubbing the walls, repainting the over-the-toilet cupboard and a fresh coat of trim paint did the trick.  I replaced the previous art work in the frames with another quick and easy Cricut project. Russ and I had already replaced the light fixture and added the countertop tile years ago. So, a guest bath ready for guests or overflow (oops! probably shouldn't use that adjective when referencing a bathroom!) from family gatherings.

And that's it for now, though at some point we'd like to replace the flooring in the last three upstairs rooms. Maybe next spring, though - we're pooped and looking forward to some lazy days!! I'll leave you with a lovely foggy fall morning view from the guest room's window.

Mt. Rainier

Hopefully, next week I'll be back with continued progress on the Storybook Cottage landscape.

xo xo,
Jodi

Growing A Cottage Garden Part 5

With family coming in for a visit on the 19th, I knew this week would be my last chance to work on minis for a while. So, I pushed hard, worked late, and really every spare moment (and moments I should have been doing other things) were focused to get as much of the garden finished as possible. I'll apologize now for not taking any "in process" photos. I'll just explain some of the processes with the photos.

*One quick note for Chrome users: If you want to view the images as large as possible, even larger than the Blogger photo viewer, right click on the photo and select Open In New Window.

I finally committed to attaching the flower boxes

I installed gutters and teacup rain chains which empty into rain barrels. I installed the battery powered porch light (after the brass was made copper), the teacup address plate, topiary and strawberry pot to the porch area. I have yet to make the strawberry plant. I also need to make a door mat.

Here's the bee skep and the bee smoker. I have the bee skep tutorial somewhere on the blog. Search skep and it should come up. I still need to make lots of tiny bees. The ones I made for the Three Pigs were a little large and cartoonish, which was fine for that build, but I'd like to try for smaller ones at some point.

Here's the corner planter filled with flowers that bees love. And another teacup rain chain to utilize nature's water. You may also notice the stone path has been weathered and aged.

The light switch and battery pack for the stairwell lights have been turned into the electric meter. The space below it is reserved for the big clay pot which will be the home of the Camellia tree, once I get around to making it.

The kitchen's bay window ledge was always slated for pots of herbs and flowers, and I finally got to make that dream come true! The area below the bay window got a layer of gravel - it still needs to be aged. A water heater and gas meter are planned for the small space to the left of the window.

Here's a photo of this side of the cottage. It looks a little bare now without the rose arbor and fences.

The right side of the cottage was the home of the potting bench, which finally got outfitted for planting.

In order for our homeowner to reach the high window boxes for watering, I made a watering wand from roughly bent brass rod. I added beads and metal pieces to replicate the fittings, and to make it look adjustable.

To make the cheap, clear green hose look more authentic, I painted it with green paint marker, then aged with brown washes. I attached it to a fairy garden wall sink (painted copper) and added the hose holder to the front. This area still needs some accessorizing in good time.

Here's the whole side together.

The next step in the process will be to add flowers to the fence planters, then install the fences to the landscape board. Then the arbor, then the gate etc.

For the next week, I'll be turning my attention to getting life ready for company. I hope to share the guest room photos during that time.

One last note before I leave you... Our talented, creative and funny friend Keli, in the midst of her own life challenges, has taken the time and care to send some of Charlene's treasures to me for display in the cottage. I'll share photos in my next post. They are perfect, and I love that through Keli's heart, Charlene's passion for minis will continue to delight others. Thank you, Keli! 💗

xo xo,
Jodi